Duties of the Heart
Rabbi Aryeh Citron
Parsha Halacha
Parshat Nitzavim-VaYelech
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Duties of the Heart
In this week’s Torah portion, we read the following inspirational verses: “For this commandment which I command you this day, is not concealed from you, nor is it far away. It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will go up to heaven for us and fetch it for us, to tell [it] to us, so that we can fulfill it?’ Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will cross to the other side of the sea for us and fetch it for us, to tell [it] to us, so that we can fulfill it?’ Rather, [this] thing is very close to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so that you can fulfill it.”[1]
The verse alludes to three types of mitzvot:
A) Mitzvot of the heart, such as loving and fearing G-d, doing Teshuvah, and prayer (“in your heart”).
B) Mitzvot involving speech, such as studying Torah, reciting the Haggadah, and the Grace after Meals (“in your mouth”).
C) Mitzvot involving action. This includes a majority of the mitzvot (“so that you can fulfill it”).
All of these mitzvot are considered very close to you, i.e., very easy to fulfill.
Of these three groups of mitzvot, the most significant are the mitzvot of the heart. This is why the Torah puts this category the between the other two, to indicate its importance.[2] In fact, the Ibn Ezra[3] explains that the main objective of the mitzvot is for the heart, that we should impress (devotion to G-d) upon our heart We also say them (certain mitzvot) with our mouth in order to strengthen the (proper) feeling of the heart, and we need to do the action mitzvot in order to remember to remind us to speak (and think) about them.
The Parable
In the introduction to his famous work Duties of the Heart, Rabbeinu Bachaye gives the following parable.
A king once gave silk fabric to his servants to test their wisdom. The wise servants sorted through the silk and discovered that there were three levels of quality in the silk. They therefore prepared suitable garments from the inferior and average-quality silk, while they used the most exquisite silk to make beautiful attire to wear when serving the king.
The foolish servants used the inferior silk to make garments for themselves and sold off the rest and squandered the money on feasting and drinking.
When the king heard about this, he promoted the wise servants and banished the fools to a distant land.
The Message
So too, the Almighty G-d gave the Torah to every Jew. A wise man realizes that it has three categories. The first is the duties of the heart and discipline of the soul. These he will endeavor to fulfill on a constant basis. The second category is the practical mitzvot. These he will fulfill each in the proper time and place. Finally, he will use the historical sections of the Torah in order to understand people, world events and problems and will apply these lessons in the right time and place as needed. These men are similar to the wise servants.
A foolish person may use the Torah to learn wise statements and riddles and then use these for worldly benefits. These men resemble the foolish servants in the above parable.
It is due to the significance of these mitzvot that Rabeinu Bachaye wrote the book entitled Duties of the Heart in which he elaborates on these duties.
The Main Thing Is the Action
This does not contradict the teaching that “the main thing is the action.”[4] In terms of the impact that one’s actions has on perfecting the world, the action is the main thing in that it affects the world most powerfully. But in terms of a person’s spiritual growth and closeness to his Creator, it is the duties of the heart that are of paramount importance.[5]
In the Torah
There are many verses in the Torah that indicate the importance of serving G-d in one’s heart. Amongst them:
· And now, O Israel, what does the Lord, your God, demand of you? Only to fear the Lord, your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, and to worship the L-rd, your G-d, with all your heart and with all your soul, to keep the commandments of the L-rd and His statutes, which I command you this day, for your good.[6]
· You shall follow the L-rd, your G-d, fear Him, keep His commandments, heed His voice, worship Him, and cleave to Him.[7]
· And the Lord commanded us to perform all these statutes, to fear the L-rd, our G-d, for our good all the days, to keep us alive, as of this day.[8]
o This verse indicates that the main objective in the Torah and Mitzvot is to fear G-d.[9]
· The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.[10]
· if you seek it like silver and hunt for it like treasures, then you will understand the fear of the L-rd, and you will find the knowledge of G-d.[11]
· “Fear of the L-rd is to hate evil, haughtiness, pride, the way of evil, and a perverse mouth; [these] I hate.”[12]
· Those who are perverse in heart are an abomination of the L-rd, but He desires those who are sincere in their way.[13]
· Charm is false and beauty is futile; a God-fearing woman is to be praised.[14]
From the Later Sages
The Talmudic sages also stressed the importance of serving G-d with a pure heart. Several examples:
· G-d requires the (service of the) heart.[15]
· The eyes and the heart are two “brokers” of sin.[16]
· Do not be as slaves, who serve their master for the sake of reward. Rather, be as slaves who serve their master not for the sake of reward. And the fear of Heaven should be upon you.[17]
· Make that His will should be your will, so that He should make your will to be as His will. Nullify your will before His will, so that He should nullify the will of others before your will.[18]
· One whose fear of sin takes precedence to his wisdom, his wisdom endures. But one whose wisdom takes precedence to his fear of sin, his wisdom does not endure.[19]
· One who studies Torah but doesn’t have fear of heaven is like one who has the keys to the inner chambers but not to the outer chambers.[20]
· Rav Yannai announced (regarding such a person): “Woe onto him who does not have a dwelling place yet he makes an entranceway to a dwelling place.”[21]
· G-d created the world only in order that we fear Him. As the verse says: “G-d did this so that we should fear Him.”[22] [23]
· Love and fear (of G-d) are the wings which elevate all of our mitzvot to G-d.[24]
Mitzvot of the Heart[25]
There are many mitzvot that are “duties of the heart.” Several of these are:
· To believe in G-d and that He created the world ex nihilo and that there is none like Him and that He is one.
· To worship G-d in our hearts (through prayer).
· To meditate on the marvels of G-d in creation.
· To trust in G-d, revere Him, and be ashamed in His presence in that He observes our visible and hidden activities.
· To love Him and love those who love Him in order to draw close to Him.
· To love one’s fellow-Jew.
· Not to hate one’s fellow-Jew
· The Mitzvah of doing Teshuvah
· To not bear a grudge, covet or take revenge.
How to Create an Emotion
The commentaries question how the Torah can command a person to feel certain emotions. It would seem that emotions form naturally as a result of certain experiences and that one cannot force himself to feel a particular way.
In answer to this Maimonides writes:
“What is the path [to attain] love and fear of Him? When a person contemplates His wondrous and great deeds and creations and appreciates His infinite wisdom that surpasses all comparison, he will immediately love, praise, and glorify [Him], yearning with tremendous desire to know [God's] great name, as David stated: ‘My soul thirsts for the Lord, for the living God.’[26]
“When he [continues] to reflect on these same matters, he will immediately recoil in awe and fear, appreciating how he is a tiny, lowly, and dark creature, standing with his flimsy, limited, wisdom before He who is of perfect knowledge, as David stated: ‘When I see Your heavens, the work of Your fingers... [I wonder] what is man that You should recall Him.’[27] [28]
“In other words, the mitzvah to love G-d can be fulfilled by contemplating upon the greatness of G-d. This will eventually bring a person to have this emotion.[29] Similarly, in order to love a fellow-Jew as oneself, one should contemplate upon the fact that all Jews have one root-soul and are essentially connected.”[30]
Is It Actually Easy?
The question upon which the Alter Rebbe bases his magnum opus, the Tanya is: Why does the Torah say that “This thing (the mitzvot) is very near to you… in your heart” when in fact it seems difficult to fulfill the mitzvot of loving and fearing G-d?
The Alter Rebbe explains that love and fear of G-d are emotions that every Jew possesses innately. One merely needs to know how to uncover these emotions so that he can utilize them to inspire him to serve G-d in all of one’s ways.[31]
Emotions Rooted in Action
One must see to it that his actions follow the (positive) beliefs in his heart. Otherwise, one is not “complete” in his service of G-d and may even be considered a hypocrite.[32]
In addition, by acting upon one’s inspired emotions, one can channel those emotions and harness them so that they remain vital and do not “fade away.”
Several examples:
· The action that follows from loving G-d is that one should cause others to love G-d.[33]
· After doing Teshuvah one should increase one’s Torah study.[34] This learning enables one to internalize the spiritual awakening of one’s Teshuvah.[35]
· Mitzvot in general and the mitzvah of tzedakah in particular act as “vessels” to “contain” the G-dly revelation that one elicits through Torah study. [36]
Wishing you a Shabbat Shalom from sunny Las Vegas, Nevada,
Aryeh Citron
[1] Deut. 20, 11 - 13
[2] Rabeinu Bachayeh on ibid, 14
[3] On ibid
[4] Avot, 1, 17
[5] See Tanya, chapter 38
[6] Deut.10, 12 and 13
[7] Ibid, 13, 5
[8] Ibid, 6, 24
[9] See Rabbeinu Bachaye on the verse
[10] Proverbs 1, 6, see also ibid, 9, 10
[11] Ibid, 2, 4 and 5
[12] Proverbs, 8, 13
[13] Ibid, 11, 20
[14] Ibid, 30, 30
[15] Sanhedrin 106a
[16] Midrash Rabbah, Bamidbar, 17, 6
[17] Avot 1, 3
[18] Ibid, 2, 4
[19] Ibid, 3, 9
[20] Shabbat 31b
[21] Ibid, see Maharsha that fear of Heaven is both the entranceway to understanding wisdom and the ultimate goal of all wisdom
[22] Ecclesiastes 3, 14
[23] Ibid
[24] Zohar, explained in Tanya, chapter 16. See also chapter 38
[25] Rabbeinu Bachayeh in the Introduction of the “Duties of the Heart”
[26] Psalms 42, 3
[27] Psalms 8, 4-5
[28] Yesodei HaTorah, 2, 2
[29] See Sefer Ha’erkim Chabad, erech ahava, page 239 in Derech Mitzvotecha in the notes on the Maamar Lehavin Inyan Ha’Ahava
[30] See Tanya, chapter 32
[31] See Tanya, chapters 18 – 25, HaTamim, choveret 4, page 45 (188 a) See also Likutei Sichot, vol. 17, pg. 217, note 19, that many commentaries understand the mitzvah of loving one’s fellow Jew as oneself to mean that one should act towards one’s fellow Jew in a loving manner. See there pages 218 - 224
[32] See Kings One, 11, 4, Psalms, 78, 36 and 37
[33] See Yoma 86a
[34] Vayikra Rabbah 25, Tanya, Igeret HaTeshuvah, 9
[35] See Likutei Torah, Nitzavim 46a and in many places
[36] See ibid, Re’eh 43c